I have a day job as most of you know...working as an Admin Assistant in an office. It pays the bills and keeps me off the streets for most of the week but it’s by no means my “passion project”.
If you follow me on Instagram or Twitter than you’ll already know about the little volunteer gig that The Boy and I have going on – and it is something that I am passionate about. CATS!
Every few months we get a call from the Cat Protection Society in Enmore asking if we can foster a litter of kittens for them. Can we EVER! We first started fostering about a year ago and have had about six lots of kittens so far. When I first moved back to Sydney I volunteered for Cat Protection in their Enmore shelter but it’s just a bit of a schlep for me now that I’m a fully-fledged Westie chick. Fostering suits me much better these days.
We generally get the kittens when they are about six weeks old. At this stage they weight about 600 – 700 grams and our job is to look after them in a safe environment and “fatten the up to 1kg” so that they can be returned to Cat Protection, desexed, and adopted out to their “fur-ever” homes.
Mostly it is a lot of fun, but it can also be really stressful as sometimes the kittens are not 100% well. Many of them have been turned into Cat Protection as strays (sometimes with their mum, and sometimes without). They’ve had a rough and scary start to life. They mostly always get Cat Flu which can kill a poor little kitten in a flash, and they always have worms and poor upset tummies. Along with a visit to the vet we think cuddles are the best medicine (they don’t always agree with us).
I would love to have a “fur-ever” cat myself but at this stage in our lives The Boy and I have a lot of travel that we need to get out of our systems so fostering is perfect for us – we feel so blessed to be able to have these little guys in our home for a few weeks before they go off to their next loving home.
Maybe we when grown up well get a “fur-ever” cat, but not until we have the travel bug out of our systems. So many people embark on pet ownership without any forethought to their future lives. We see SO many cats surrendered to Cat Protection (or just simply dumped) as their owners decide they just “don’t want a pet anymore” for whatever reason. It’s very sad as these pets are domestic animals and they cannot fend for themselves. My big message to people is to think about where you want your life to be in 5, 10 or even 15 years. If there is even a slight change you want to up sticks and move overseas then this probably isn’t the right time for you to be adopting a pet.
The kittens in this post are our second last lot. I cannot actually remember their names. I called them collectively “The Duds” as they were so scared of us that we couldn’t pat them or pick them up for cuddles. Poor little ladies – you have to wonder what happened to them before CPS got them that would make them so scared of people.
The Cat Protection Society is at 103 Enmore Road, Enmore. You can phone them on 9519 7201 or 9557 4818. Their adoption centre is open at the following times but remember, really think about if getting a kitty is right for you FOREVER!
Sunday – Wednesday: 11am – 2.30pm
Thursday: 11am – 2:30pm and then again 4:30 – 6:30pm
Friday: 11am – 2:30pm and then again at 3:30 – 5pm
Saturday: 10am – 3.30pm
